At this week’s Theological Research Seminar, Dr. Clement Wen will be presenting, “Meaning and Eternity amidst ‘the Horrors’: Marilyn McCord Adams and Wolfhart Pannenberg in Critical-Constructive Dialogue.”
Read the abstract and his bio below.
All are welcome to attend in Camelford Hall (room 226) at McMaster Divinity College at 1:00pm or via livestream at the link below:
Join the Livestream
Password: z00m (Note that the password has zeros rather than “o”)
Abstract
In this paper, Marilyn McCord Adams (1943-2017) is placed in dialogue with Wolfhart Pannenberg (1928-2014) over the question of how sin, evil, and especially “the horrors” affects “meaning” and “meaning-making.” Because Adams emphasizes the subjectivity of individuals who are “meaning makers,” she posits that “the horrors” (i.e., the most grievous of inexplicable evils) work towards the destruction and undoing of “meaning” and our sense of reality’s “coherence.” The implications of this view will be explored with especial emphasis on how such differs greatly from the way in which Pannenberg grounds inherent, discoverable “meaning” and “coherence” eschatologically by way of his differentiated omnitemporal understanding of “eternity” and the role this plays in terms of God’s action within history. A broader implication is that a critically-constructive dialogue between Adams and Pannenberg promises to be immensely fruitful and, as such, the paper encourages and anticipates further interaction between these two important twentieth-century figures.
Bio
Dr. Wen is Assistant Professor of Systematic and Historical Theology and the Howard and Shirley Bentall Chair in Evangelical Thought at McMaster Divinity College in Hamilton, Ontario. He is author of An ‘Open-Ended Distinctiveness’: The Contemporary Relevance of Wolfhart Pannenberg’s Participatory Ecclesiology and Ecumenism for World Christianity (Vandenhoeck & Ruprecht, 2021).
About TRS
The MDC Theological Research Seminar (TRS) is a bimonthly gathering for all MDC students and faculty. TRS meets over the lunch hour on Wednesdays, and includes about thirty minutes for the paper presentation and twenty minutes for discussion.
All advanced degree students are invited to present a paper and share your research with your colleagues. TRS is an excellent opportunity to “test drive” a paper you will be presenting at an upcoming conference and receive helpful feedback on your current research projects. Thinking about submitting an article to a journal and want some interaction first? TRS will provide it. Just published an article or an essay and want to share it us? TRS is an excellent opportunity to broadcast it.
This year the organizing committee consists of Dr. Francis Pang, Dr. Phil Zylla, and Dr. Gord Heath. To submit a paper, contact a member of the organizing committee.